The installation of flexible thin sheets of wall hanging material such as wallpaper, fabric and other similar material on walls is well known. Furthermore, cutters used for trimming or otherwise cutting the material for aesthetic purposes are well known.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,069 to Kohno discloses a cutter for wallpaper. The cutter has a triangular grip and a sheath embedded therein for holding a cutting blade. A base of the triangle defines a slide edge that has a "V" shaped cross section symmetrical with respect to a phantom plane containing the cutting blade. The cutter is suitable for uniformly trimming edges of the wallpaper extending on a baseboard without requiring the use of a ruler.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,396 to Scholl discloses a hand operated tool for cutting and trimming wall covering material. It includes a pair of matching half sections forming an elongated handle and a blade holding socket which is disposed in angular relation to the major axis of the handle. The tool includes a quick disconnect anchor device wherein a single spring biased pin which is moveable transversely through the walls of the blade-holding socket and an opening formed in the blade for locking the blade in operating position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,605 to Selfridge discloses a hand operated tool for cutting wallpaper along a joint between a wall which is being papered and an adjacent structure. The tool includes a guide portion with a conical body for resting against the adjacent structural member and gradually feeding the wallpaper into the joint. The tool includes a flat flange for placement against the wall being papered and pressing the paper smoothly against the wall. A blade is mounted in a receptacle and secured by a releasable fastener. The blade is oriented at an angle to the flange. An elongated handle is mounted at the base of the body member for manipulating the tool.
A wallpaper trimmer is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,853,778 to Pratt et al. The trimmer includes a head portion and a handle portion. The tool includes guide surfaces diverging at the center plane of the head portion at an angle substantially 90 degrees to guide the trimmer along a 90 degree wall intersection. Furthermore, it includes a blade holder to hold the blade in a fixed position.
In the past, most wall surfaces were flat and the transition from one surface to another was made with an intersection forming an angle of 90 degrees. Furthermore, the transition from a wall surface to a ceiling or to a floor board was also made at a right angle. Accordingly, in most cases the trimming of the wall hanging material was done at the intersection of the surfaces by using the adjacent wall surface as a guide or by pressing the blade on the intersection line itself. Recently, however, the use of walls with curved surfaces and/or curved transitions from one wall surface to another has become very common. Therefore, it is necessary to cut or otherwise trim wall hanging material on the curved surfaces. Because of the nature of the surfaces, such cutting or trimming is difficult to perform with precision with any of the cutters used in the past. The present invention, discloses a cutter for trimming or cutting wall hanging material on curved wall surfaces with ease and precision. The cutter includes a guide for accurately guiding a blade along the cutting line to effect a precise trimming which is aesthetically desirable in a wall installation. Furthermore, the tool includes a guard that can be easily positioned so as to cover the cutting edges of the tool to prevent injuries or other damage when the tool is not being used.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.